


Reversed

by supermagpie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Thor (2011), Young Loki/Sif squish of the highest order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 16:49:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5505476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supermagpie/pseuds/supermagpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This, Loki thinks - as Sif's hand pinches his collar tight around his throat - is exactly why he so rarely does favours for people...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reversed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dloz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dloz/gifts).



> Happy Holidays dloz! I hope this short young Sifki fic is to your liking. :)

 

 

This, Loki thinks - as Sif's hand twists his collar tight around his throat - is exactly why he so rarely does favours for people.

His air is pinched off to a trickle by her grip and he can't help but grab at her arm as she hefts him up. She raises him until his toes are hardly brushing the ground, carries him like this as she steps over the threshold of her armory chamber, the iron strength of her grasp never wavering.

"S-S-ihiiif..." he wheezes, trying to muster a 'wait', but she cuts him off with a shake.

"You!" She hisses, face flush and eyes blazing, her sword hand trembling ready at her side. The door swings shut in her wake with one sharp kick. She shakes him again, one last rattle before she pitches him to the floor where he sprawls, gasping.

"You out of EVERYONE!" she snarls as he coughs his way to a breath of air. By the time he has assembled a proper lungful she is looming over him, her sword point in dangerous proximity to his person. When he looks up into her face the venom of her tone is reflected in full, but there is a sincere hurt there that he had not anticipated. Her eyes are bright with the sheen of withheld tears and the sight makes his stomach drop for several complimentary reasons. Oh he has made such a mistake...

"It isn't what you think." he blurts out.

"Oh ISN'T it?" Sif snaps, a bitter laugh underscoring her tone as she tilts her sword to lay it's point against his chest. "After all the troublesome vandals I have suffered in my corner of these halls I catch one of them in the act and you ask me to believe it is not exactly what it looks like?! Not even _your_ tongue can weave so bold a lie. You are lurking in my chambers while I am away, tampering with my belongings like all the rest of them!"

"I've done naught to your belongings!" Loki protests, throwing up a hand to stay her as the point of her weapon presses sharper to his skin. "At least allow me a _chance_ to explain before you send me to Eir full of holes!"

"Explain _what,_ Loki? How you listened to my woes even as you caused them?!" she accuses, seething, and her eyes grow wetter with the words.

"I did _no such thing_!" The sorcerer protests, raising his voice perhaps more than necessary, but his sheer indignance makes Sif, at last, pause.

"Consider just who it is who lies before you." Loki reminds her, sitting up a bit more, seeking out her wary gaze with his own. When their eyes meet hers are still guarded, but her head tilts an ear forward to take his words in and that is enough.

"Sif," he says gently, letting his face soften some. "Have we not been friends near all of our lives? I know the value of your confidence, and likewise I know the price of breaking it. Honestly, would I do such a thing to you, use the woes you have brought to my ear against you in such a way, and then allow myself to be caught so easily?"

Sif stares him down, mulls over his words for a moment, looks around at her things to be sure they are all - in fact - untouched, before at last her sword point falls aside.   
  
"I suppose it _would_ be unlike you to be so careless in your efforts."

"Exactly! When before this have you found me so immediately in an act?" he implores. "Not since we were half-grown, surely."

"Then what in the realms are you doing in here?" she asks, with a frown that is still a touch suspicious.

There is a silence then as Loki hesitates over his wording. Only when Sif re-grips the hilt of her weapon does he finally spit out the words.  

"...I am stuck." he admits at last, with a sigh that betrays a bit more of his humiliation than intended.

"Excuse me?"

"I tried to... set up a ward for you." he mutters, cursing the flush that he feels creeping over his face. "My research materials were not ideal and the diagrams turned out to be quite inadequate. I reversed a few strands in the weave and I'm afraid that has reversed the effects."

"Let me repeat this to you for the sake of my understanding." Sif says, her brow pinching. She looks him over intently, talking as she sheaths her blade. "You broke through the physical lock on my chamber, so that you could put a magical lock on it instead, but you put your spell together  _backwards_ , and you have been trapped here until just now when I have opened the door?"

"Indeed I am _still_ trapped, despite your arrival." he admits with a grumble, climbing to his feet again as she steps back to assess him.    
  
Sif's goes through a rapid-fire cycle of emotions before Loki's eyes, first surprised, he thinks ...touched, then finally she settles on laughing aloud at him. He would be more sore about her amusement at his mistake but it has been a long stretch of weeks since he has heard that sound and he is not much inclined to stop her.

"Can you really not get out?" She asks when her laughter has died away a little, her earlier anger dissolved in kind. "Show me?"

Loki rolls his eyes but indulges her, stepping over to the door and pulling it open. He leans back on the invisible barrier that now bridges the frame, knocking against it for good measure. Fascinated Sif steps over, leaning close to put her arm through the space he has just knocked upon. Her hand and wrist pass the ward effortlessly.

"How long have you been in here trying counter spells?"

This, Loki realizes, is a quite reasonable question that he does not have an answer to.

"...what time is it?

"I do not have my timepiece but it is past dinner, at least."  
  
"Oh damn."

Sif sighs and Loki could swear there is a fondness in the sound. She reaches over to touch his shoulder, squeezing just a little.

"Should I fetch your lady mother's assistance?" she asks gently, but Loki shakes his head immediately.

"I would quite prefer for her to never know this happened." He says, masking his fluster at the suggestion with a straightening of his still-slightly rumpled clothes. "There is a simpler method for the immediate issue. If you give me permission to 'enter' as it were, I may leave and fetch my notes. I shall reweave it properly for you."

"What? Don't you dare!" Sif laughs, helpfully fixing the folds of his twisted collar for him. Her hands come to rest on his chest as she tells him, "I love it as it is."

Loki blinks at her, caught off guard by the fondness of her expression. He could almost believe she is speaking of him and not his work... but that is a dangerous idea to let himself run away with. 

"Sif you _do_ understand that it's backwards...?" he manages to say and she nods, her fingers tucking into the creases of his collar.

"It's PERFECT." she insists, "Now whomever comes in to tamper with my things shall be trapped here to await my punishment."

Her smile is wide and wicked in a way that makes Loki's heart skip a little.

"Well," he says with a faint smile. "I was not much looking forward to re-doing it all so if you are sure you are content I will leave it for you, lady."  
  
"You are kind to have tried to do such a thing for me." she says, and Loki shrugs, ducking his head to avoid the intensity of her gaze. A shy smile spreads on his face nonetheless.

"I am helping your vandals far more than you, really. The sooner they accept your place in their ranks the better for them."

Sif lifts her hand from his chest and tucks it beneath his chin, guiding his eyes to her own again. 

"As my thanks for your good intentions you may enter and leave my armory at your leisure."

The barrier at his back disappears with a snap and Loki jolts, shifting a step closer to her as the discharge of magic sends a shiver down his spine. By the time his attention returns fully to Sif she has leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He finds it carries relatively the same effect...  
  
"I am late for dinner too." she tells him, something warm and welcoming in her smile as she steps away from him to hang up her weapons. "Come and eat with me?"  
  
Well. Perhaps an occasional favour is worthwhile when Sif is involved then.

"I shall be your glad company, my lady."


End file.
